Sailing The Seas *Open Thread*

As I continue along our cruise, I must say, I was remiss. I meant to post this photo from Cartegena as our van was taking us back to the ship:

And I just have to put in another one of our gorgeous ship as we were returning after Cartegena:

Oh, I do love this ship!

Our next stop was in Aruba. We have been there a number of times since our timeshare has a resort there. But one place to which we had never gone, but about which we have heard, is De Palm Island. So that is where we went while in port. Here is a link to see what it looks like, De Palm Island. We snorkeled some, read our books, looked at fish in the water from the dock, and just relaxed. It was a picture perfect day to boot, so we had a lovely time.

Next up was Curacao. Neither one of us had been there before, so this was really fun. While Suzy went on a two-tank dive (from the shore) on another side of the island, I took a little trolley tour of the old part of town. Again, the tour guide was very good. Here are some shots from Philipsburg, Curacao beginning with the pilot boat bringing the harbor pilot on board:

These markets are called “floating markets” because the vendors live in boats. Every morning, they get up at 4:00 am, put out their wares, or fruits and vegetables, then take it all down each night, and sleep on their boats. Cool, right?

And now more of the area:

This place is the most photographed house in Curaco. It is called the “Wedding Cake House”:

You’ll notice that one of the gates had a Star of David in it. Curaco claims to have the oldest continuous synagogue in the Western Hemisphere. I think Charleston and Savannah might have something to say about that (Charleston was the center for Judaism in this country, and is where Reformed Judaism began).

And then we went to the main cathedral in Philipsburg:

The cathedral was a lovely place, able to hold 800 people for high holy days. While Curacao does have other faith traditions, Catholicism is the dominant religion.

Clearly, I need another day to post photos of our trip! Next will be St. Maarten, the towel animals, and some shots of things that appealed to me.

Once again, this is an Open Thread. Feel free to just look, comment on the trip, or what is going on with Obamacare, and the state of the nation. All yours now!

Oh, thank you, Helen! And yes, it is a good reminder that there is such beauty in the world. Honestly, just looking at the beautiful water as we were sailing through was just mesmerizing. It is a beautiful world, indeed…

Sigh. It really doesn’t stop with these jackalopes, does it? It is never them, but EVERYONE else. They do nothing wrong, nope, not ever. It’s the horrible, greedy companies or the stupid citizenry of the country. Uh, yeah…

You are so right – it IS a sickness, Helen. The lengths, the depths, the extents, of which people will go to defend, excuse, permit, and blithely accept what Obama says or does. A sickness wraps it up nicely…

Announced on Megyn Kelly show: Obama administration has quietly told insurance companies—-since the back-end of website hasn’t been created where info/payments are made to the companies for enrollees—–to just ESTIMATE how much they are owed and the government will send them a check.

This is just one more piece of this whole con. While Obama is railing against the insurance companies, he has arranged to pay them under the table. Just like when he was taking tons of money from Wall Street at the same time he was getting buckets of money from them. He is the ultimate con artist.